The Man Who Talks Too Much
- Episode aired Jan 10, 1996
- 1h 10m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
12
YOUR RATING
A successful lawyer kills his mistress and frames Shintaro Imaizumi for the murder. When the lawyer convinces Shintaro to plead guilty, Furuhata becomes suspicious.A successful lawyer kills his mistress and frames Shintaro Imaizumi for the murder. When the lawyer convinces Shintaro to plead guilty, Furuhata becomes suspicious.A successful lawyer kills his mistress and frames Shintaro Imaizumi for the murder. When the lawyer convinces Shintaro to plead guilty, Furuhata becomes suspicious.
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Featured review
Furuhata Ninzaburo gets his Perry Mason moment
The second season opens with a 70-minute special which has one of the most intriguing premises of any episode so far. Shintaro Imaizumi, Furuhata's bumbling sidekick himself, is arrested for the murder of a woman he was madly in love with but Furuhata suspects the killer to be Shintaro's lawyer! The script seems to almost write itself and yet "The Man Who Talks Too Much" is a fairly routine and flat episode painfully padded out to fit the 70-minute slot. Whereas the previous episode, "The Laughing Kangaroo", used its extended runtime to flesh out the characters and add a new twist or two, "The Man Who Talks Too Much" completely wastes it on padding.
The title is quite apt actually since most of the padding takes the form of superfluous courtroom scenes in which the guest star of the week questions witnesses as Furuhata looks on disapprovingly. Not much of relevance happens in these scenes and the dialogue lacks that Kôki Mitani spark making this special feel like it should have been just a regular 45-minute episode.
Mitani also doesn't make that much of the intriguing premise. Furuhata immediately knows Shintaro is not the killer and the two spend most of the episode apart. I wish Mitani had focused more of the episode on their relationship and the fondness Furuhata has for his assistant which he so diligently hides especially since Masahiko Nishimura and Masakazu Tamura, as always, bring their A-game and are the best part of the show.
This episode also marks the first appearance of Furuhata's second assistant, the more intelligent and capable Haga, well played by Akira Shirai. He makes a good first impression in this episode since Shintaro spends most of it in jail but I'm not sure how well they'll work as a trio.
The guest star is Akashiya Sanma and I must confess I felt his performance here was fairly lacklustre. He lacks the swagger and the arrogance to convincingly play a big-shot lawyer. He comes across instead more as an egotistical ambulance chaser than the feared defence attorney he was written to be. Furuhata pretty much steamrolls him without breaking a sweat both in court and out which makes their interactions less entertaining than they could have been. Thinking back across the impressive guest cast of the first season, Sanma is perhaps the first one not to prove a compelling opponent to the wily detective.
In conclusion, "The Man Who Talks Too Much" has a few clever moments but for the most part, it is a rather flat and padded episode. This is also reflected in Keita Kôno's direction which seems lifeless and uninspired without the usual atmosphere of a "Furuhata Ninzaburô" episode. The lighting, especially, is problematic since every set is overlit making the courtroom resemble a supermarket.
The title is quite apt actually since most of the padding takes the form of superfluous courtroom scenes in which the guest star of the week questions witnesses as Furuhata looks on disapprovingly. Not much of relevance happens in these scenes and the dialogue lacks that Kôki Mitani spark making this special feel like it should have been just a regular 45-minute episode.
Mitani also doesn't make that much of the intriguing premise. Furuhata immediately knows Shintaro is not the killer and the two spend most of the episode apart. I wish Mitani had focused more of the episode on their relationship and the fondness Furuhata has for his assistant which he so diligently hides especially since Masahiko Nishimura and Masakazu Tamura, as always, bring their A-game and are the best part of the show.
This episode also marks the first appearance of Furuhata's second assistant, the more intelligent and capable Haga, well played by Akira Shirai. He makes a good first impression in this episode since Shintaro spends most of it in jail but I'm not sure how well they'll work as a trio.
The guest star is Akashiya Sanma and I must confess I felt his performance here was fairly lacklustre. He lacks the swagger and the arrogance to convincingly play a big-shot lawyer. He comes across instead more as an egotistical ambulance chaser than the feared defence attorney he was written to be. Furuhata pretty much steamrolls him without breaking a sweat both in court and out which makes their interactions less entertaining than they could have been. Thinking back across the impressive guest cast of the first season, Sanma is perhaps the first one not to prove a compelling opponent to the wily detective.
In conclusion, "The Man Who Talks Too Much" has a few clever moments but for the most part, it is a rather flat and padded episode. This is also reflected in Keita Kôno's direction which seems lifeless and uninspired without the usual atmosphere of a "Furuhata Ninzaburô" episode. The lighting, especially, is problematic since every set is overlit making the courtroom resemble a supermarket.
helpful•00
- mdjedovic
- Sep 6, 2022
Details
- Runtime1 hour 10 minutes
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